What's going on around the globe I first encountered the work of video artist Tsui Kuang-yu last summer, when his series The Shortcut to the Systematic Life: City Spirits was on show at Chi-Wen Gallery. Shot in London and Taipei, the series has no sound. It doesn't need it - the audience provided plenty. The first, Part I Bowling Alley in London, simply shows a park with people sitting on benches on both sides of a path, while a group of pigeons pecked in the foreground. Boring ... until Tsui appears with a bowling ball in his hands. Some people gasped, some laughed as Tsui hurls the ball at the pigeons. In subsequent scenes, Tsui continues to surprise pigeons throughout London. 'When I saw there were lots of pigeons in the square, this idea just came to my mind,' Tsui says. He realises that some people may regard it as ridiculous, but says he hopes they will 'think further'. In Part 2 The Rat Race (2006), Tsui stands next to traffic lights at a busy London intersection. When they turn green, he raises a chequered flag and waves it vigorously, urging the drivers to go. He continues around town, waving the flag at cyclists and double-decker buses. Surprising people is nothing new for Tsui. The 60-second The Perceptive (2001, below) opens with Tsui in profile. Suddenly, a blow-dryer hits the back of his head. He says: 'Blow dryer.' Next, a hairbrush is thrown at him. 'I don't know,' says Tsui. Then, it's a book. 'A book.' Then a wine bottle, a plastic tub ... objects begin flying at him faster and harder as he struggles to name each article. The last objects are a chair, a vacuum cleaner, and finally a TV set, which nearly knocks him out. In The Vehicle (1997), Tsui uses an office chair as a form of transport, rolling down a mountain, hitting a traffic cone, nearly colliding with oncoming traffic. It's no wonder Tsui prefers to call his work 'action art' rather than video art. 'I don't want to define my works as video, but unfortunately it's easy for people to understand it,' he says. Meanwhile, Tsui continues to work on his action projects around the world. He's exhibiting from April 27 to June 10 at Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, and from August 4 to August 26 at the Eslite Gallery in Taipei.
